Play Midi file’s by Track in a system with pulseaudio

Hello guys,

It’s been a while since I don’t post anything, but it was time for a new tutorial, this time about MIDI files with pulseaudio and, in this case, rosegarden.

I had always lots of trouble to make this works correctly so I hope it’s useful to you.
First, we will install the needed packages (in this case on a debian system, maybe on your distro the names are different)

Once this is installed, we will test the jackctl to work ok. So launch qjackctl and you should see something like:

If you click on start, and all it’s correct, the screen should look like:

If not, probably it’s for the output configuration. I recommend to click on setup, and change the output to your analog device, like this:

You can set the input to your analog too. Once configured click on the start and it should work correctly.

So, now that we have jackctl working, we can open rosegarden with a MIDI file or a new one to test.

First we will configure the SynthPlugins (which we will use to play the song). On the menu, go to Studio -> Manage Synth Plugin:

You should see something like:

As I have done, click on “FluidSynth DSSI Plugin” and click on “Editor >>” button. You will see this screen:

We click on LoadSoundFont and we will select the /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2

Once selected we select the instrument to play the track. In my case I have chosen the “Ahh Choir”:

If you need to copy the settings for another track, you can click on Controls, click on “Copy” button, go to the controls of the other track and click “Paste”:

Once you have set all the synth plugins, you only need to set the instrument of the track you want, to the device you have just configured. To make this, click with the secondary button on the track name and choose it like I did:

Once this is done, you should be able to play the track.

I hope it has been usefull to You, any doubt don’t hesitate to leave a question.